Improvement in time-keepers



J. STEPHENSON.

- Time Keeper.

Patented Nov. 3, 1863 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IMPROVEMENT lN TlME-KEEPERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 40,508, dated November 3, 1863.

T 0 to whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES STEPHENSON, of Oanandaigua, in the county of Ontario and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Time- Keepers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which'- Figure 1 is a rear elevation of a portion ot a clock-movement illustrating my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two figures.

This invention consists in the combination, with a suitably constructed escapementwheel and palet, of a laterally-yielding or elastic detent-lever attached to the shaft of the pallet, and extending across the face of the escapement-wheel in such position that a pin projecting from the hub of the balancewheel will impart the necessary motion to the detent-le-ver in the forward motion of the balance-wheel, but slip past it in the backward motion, as will be hereinafter fully explained.

In order that others skilled in the art to which my invention appertains may be enabled to fully understand and use the same, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

In the accompanying illustration, A may represent various parts of the frame-work of the clock, in which the balance-wheel B is mounted upon its shaft B and controlled by a hair spring, 0, in the ordinary manner. Upon the hub b of the balance-wheel B is attached a beveled pin, 1), for the purpose to be hereinafter explained.

I) is a disk rigidly secured upon the shaft B, and provided with a pin, (1, near its periphery, which is designed to be acted upon by the teeth of the escape-wheel E.

F is the pallet, mounted upon and turning with a shaft, G, which is journaled in the framing of the clock, so that it may freely turn or revolve in either direction.

H is a detent lever or arm, which is rigidly secured upon the shaft G at right angles with the escapement E, and extending in an obliquely horizontal position across the face of the escape-wheel E, its inner end, h, terminating in suitable proximity with the shaft B to be operated by the beveled pin 1).

This end It is formed of a thin piece or strip of steel or other elastic metal, constituting a spring, so as to allow the beveled side of the pin 7) to pass over it without imparting motion to the lever H.

I is a pin or check for limiting the motion of the lever H.

Operation: The parts being set in motion, the first eifect of the movement of the wheel B will be to throw the pallet by the pin 0 coming in contact with the end 7b of the lever H, which end it passes as soon as the lever H has been sufficiently turned to retract the end f of the pallet F from the teeth of the escape-wheel E. The wheel E, now having nothing to obstruct its motion, revolves in the direction indicated by the arrow. This motion of the escapement actuates the balance-wheel B by one of its teeth acting on the pin (7. The lever H, when released by the pin 1), is caused to resume its original position by the pressure of a tooth of the escapement-wheel against the oblique end f of the pallet F, when the motion of the escapement-wheel E is again arrested by the end f. At the same time a reverse motion is imparted to the balance-wheel by the hairspring O, and owing to the peculiar form of the pin 1), together with the flexibility of the end or spring h of the dctent-lever H, the former is readily permitted to pass the spring during the reverse or return motion of the balance-wheel, when its elasticity instantly causes it to assume the proper position to receive the forward stroke of said pin and effect the motion of the lever H, as before explained.

Parts not herein particularly described may be constructed in any of the known ways.

Having thus described my invention. what I claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. Operating the pallet or escapement by an elastic or yielding lever, so constructed and applied that it will be actuated by the forward motion of the balance-wheel and permit its free return, substantially as explained.

2. The employment or use of a beveled pin, b, in combination with the yielding lever H h, for the purposes specified.

JAMES STEPHENSON.

Witnesses:

ANDREW L. WILLIAMs, ALEXR. H. HowELL. 

